On home turf

New housebuilder Explore Living became the subject of industry gossip before it had even opened its first show home. It was mocking up prototypes of its homes, it was rumoured, it would be using new offsite technology, and it was thought to be applying lean construction and other big ideas from the world of international mega-structures to the humble house.

Now the first houses are being completed at the Phoenix Parc site in Dartford, Kent, and managing director Karl Pickering is revealing all for the first time to Regenerate. But as we walk towards the first terrace of completed houses, the first impression is that the homes look absolutely ordinary. With a touch of red render here and a timber panel there, there is no feature of the external design that hints at innovation. There is not even anything obviously radical about the construction. The homes are built from traditional brick and block, albeit with precast concrete first floors to eliminate that squeaky floorboard problem.

It is almost an anti-climax. But when Pickering talks of putting on 3D glasses to look inside structures on a computer screen in the company's collaboration centre, or explains the work carried out by the company's in-house "young gun" researchers into what buyers of new homes want, you get the impression that there might be more to Explore than meets the eye at Phoenix Parc.

Prestige parentage

To be fair the company did not set itself up as a radical housebuilder, although managing director Karl Pickering says that it does aim to "do things differently", particularly in the field of customer service (see box). The weight of expectation comes from the new company's parentage; Explore is an offshoot of Laing O'Rourke, the construction goliath that famously grew out of a concrete subbie. Laing O'Rourke is renowned for combining business savvy with innovation, although much of the latter goes on behind firmly closed doors to maintain the company's advantage in its competitive marketplace. It has to its name such innovations as the customised office solution, also initiated in Dartford, which delivers strings of office projects more efficiently than the norm by using a single project team and off-site build technology.

For its new venture Laing O'Rourke has brought in a management team from traditional housebuilding in the form of former Laing Homes managing director Paul Healey as chairman and former Barratt regional managing director Pickering. Their first project, Phoenix Parc, which is being built on the site of a former paper factory, comprises 151 one- and two-bedroom apartments and 34 two- and three-bedroom houses for private sale, plus 56 affordable units for housing association Places for People. The company is developing the site jointly with Bellwinch Homes - each is developing an equal number of homes.

Pickering explains: "We bought the site with the design already in place by Biscoe + Stanton Architects, so we've just tweaked these designs a bit." First occupations will be in the summer.

Building methods

The company may not have designed these homes from scratch but they are representative of its product, Pickering maintains, as they result from the processes and attitudes inherent in the Laing O'Rourke culture. When it comes to building methods and technology, the approach certainly has more in common with major construction than conventional housebuilding. Pickering says: "We aren't building house-types, we talk about using different components - a component could be a single element like a door or something bigger like a bathroom. We select the components, and then the architect wraps a building around them to suit the context."

On its big name projects, Laing O'Rourke takes a collaborative approach to working with its manufacturers, suppliers and consultants. Pickering gives examples of how that is applied to housebuilding: "As we place an order with a subcontractor their name goes up on the board on site. When the home is handed over we give buyers a folder with all the details of the build team. At our upcoming site in Brighton Marina, we are holding workshops with Brighton and Hove council to work up the scheme."

Future schemes could well be more outwardly innovative. Pickering says he is looking at offsite technology such as concrete and timber frame. "We're working with suppliers to get concepts that they've got into the marketplace. At Brighton Marina we will be looking to create more sustainable homes." Brighton Marina, where the company is working with developer Parkridge and architect Allies and Morrison on a mixed-use scheme, is one of a string of projects in the pipeline. Next up is a scheme of 65 units in Cove in Hampshire and there are upcoming sites in Greenwich, Cardiff, Luton and Nottingham. "All together, we'll complete 100 homes this year, and we could be doing 500 or more homes next year," says Pickering. Watch out.